Our Journey, His Message

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Walking after Jesus requires less of us and more of Him. It sounds so simple, “less of us, more of Him” but implementing those words into actions requires work. We as humans want to be in control and the thought of giving that control over to anyone, including Jesus can at times be very difficult. When we come to Jesus as sinners, we ask Him to forgive our sins so that we can walk with Him on this earth and live with Him in Heaven after this life. But salvation is also about us giving our life to Jesus so that He can be in control. Yes, it is a process, but the longer we walk with Him the more of ourselves we are to give to Him. That means that our journey of salvation requires us to give more and more of our control over to Him. We still make decisions and choices but instead of leaning on our own understanding we are to lean upon understanding from the Lord. Think about the decisions that we make for our life: where do we live, who do we date, where do we work, what do we do with our money, how do we raise our children, etc. Life is full of decisions and when we ask Jesus into our hearts, we are no longer making those decisions with only our own desires to consider.

We all like to be in control, I myself struggle with wanting to be in control. I want what I want when I want it, but living that way will only last so long with Jesus. The longer I walk with Him, the more I realize that I have to give myself over to Him. Why because God has a plan for my life and only after I give myself over to Him will I walk fully in that plan. It sounds so easy on paper but walking it out on a daily basis can be a true struggle. It has been for me and many others I dare say. Why, because it means letting go.

William McDowell wrote a song several years ago called “I Give Myself Away.” In the song, the writer sings about giving himself away to be used by God. One of the bridges in the song goes, “my life is not my own, to you I belong, I give myself, I give myself away.” That is what salvation is about, saying to God, through His son Jesus, that our life is now His.

The first step to allowing God to be in control of your life is to trust Him. For many that can be difficult because of past hurts and woundings from others that betrayed that trust. Start by ask Holy Spirit to help you to forgive those that betrayed your trust. Give the hurt and pain that they caused you to Jesus. Take your time, for many the hurt can be very deep. If this step is to painful to do on your own, seek out a prayer partner or a pastor that can help. I myself reached out to an Inner Healing and Deliverance Pastor. I just got tired of seeing God through the eyes of those that hurt me. I was tired of fighting the same fight and never seeing results. And please don’t be so prideful that you don’t ask for help when you need it. Even Jesus wanted others to pray for Him. And know that no wound is too deep for Jesus to heal.

Next, know that God will not do to you what man has done. To allow someone to be in control of your life means that you have to trust them. This process might mean that minute by minute you have to give your will over to God’s and that is OK because slowly it will become automatic.

Living a life fully sold out to God is possible, but it means walking free from everything that would stand in the way of allowing God to be in control. On this Independence day, make a decision to live a life totally dependent on God. Liberate yourself from everything that has stood in the way of you leaning and trusting fully in God. Let today be your day of Independence from past hurts, pains and woundings that have stood in the way of God being in full control of your life.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3”5-6)

In today’s world we do not have to look far to see someone that has more than we have. Or someone that looks better than we look. Or someone that seems to have few or no problems. But I am here to tell you stop looking at others and keep your focus on the Lord.

It is so easy to look at someone else and see yourself as less than. That is the whole trick of the enemy, to make you feel as though you are less than everyone around you. If satan is successful in making you believe that lie, than you will never become who you are supposed to be.

I have struggled for years comparing myself to others and somehow I always find myself coming up on the short end. The conversation usually goes something like: “they have more money than you, or they look better than you, or they don’t have the struggles that you have.” Could some of these statements be true? Yes, but whether they are true or not is not my concern. God wants me to keep my eyes on Him and that is what He wants all of us to do.

Imagine if each one of us grasped the reality that we are truly “uniquely made” (Psalms 139:14). We would no longer run to this doctors to have this thing nipped and that doctor to have that thing tucked. We would not look at fashion magazines and then go on a 10 day juice fast so that our thighs looked like “so and so.” I not saying that we should not want to be the best “me” that we can be, but what I am saying is love who you are.

Holy Spirit spoke to me and reminded me of John the Baptist. The bible says that he was the “for runner of Jesus” and yet he looked and acted nothing like you would imagine. John the Baptist was a “wilderness man,” a man who from childhood had lived “in the wilderness until the day he was revealed to Israel” (Luke 1:80). He was a man whose raiment was made of “camel’s hair, and had a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.” (Matt 3:4). He oblivious was not trying to keep up with the “Joneses”, he was doing and being exactly what God had intended.

God wants each of us to find our worth in Him and not in the world. If you find yourself looking at others and finding yourself less than, then it is time to refocus your eyes on the one that uniquely made you.

I had a pastor that preached a sermon one time and he said “God will offend your flesh to save your spirit.” Man what a deep revelation. It really brings tears to my eyes. We have a father in heaven that loves us so much that He will not allow us to continue to live in our sin and thus end up in hell. I want you to pause for just a second and let that sink in. God loves you! His love is so unmeasurable that He will do whatever must be done to save your spirit. I don’t know about you but that realization is beyond huge. To have someone that would move mountains to ensure that I have an eternity with Him. Man that is love.

We think that love covers up sin or love overlooks sin, but that is a lie. True love tells us the things that we don’t want to hear. True love sacrifices so that the one that is loved can be set free. That is what God did when He sent His son, Jesus. He demonstrated His true love for us, by sacrificing His most precious thing, His son. God’s love at times can be painful, Jesus’ death is the perfect example of that. But in the end, the pain of true love is worth all of the suffering because the victory is eternal.

Jesus knows the heart of a man. He looks past what the natural eye sees and sees into the inner depth of who we are. Jesus doesn’t see color, or wealth. He doesn’t see the fancy clothes we wear or the airs that we try and put on to make ourselves feel important. He sees past all of that and sees the very thing that makes us who we are and He is calling each one of us to embrace that reality and walk the road that we are called to walk.

In order to walk that road, we must learn to love ourselves. If you find your love for yourself in the value and worth of what others say about you, then you will forever fail to truly love You. Why? Because in man’s eyes you will never be good enough. You will never measure up to the expectations that man will place on you. You will never love yourself if the standard that you use is man’s measurements and not God’s.

Most people might think life’s pretty dull on an old dirt road, but I am here to tell you most people would be 100% wrong. This story begins on just such a road and there are no dull parts to this story, definitely moments of uncertainty and maybe a little fear, but dull, most certainly not.

I am starting to realize that some of the greatest spiritual victories have taken place on old dirt roads. Paul, Mary, Abraham, Moses, each one of their stories involved a road that started out in apparently tragedy but ended in everlasting victory. I would imagine that those traveling on such a road were not feeling victorious during their long dusty walk but God’s word tells us to “kept the faith, finish the course and fight the good fight” (2 Tim 4:7). That is my clarion call for writing this article, “Fight the good fight and finish the race!”

I can say with 100% confidence that we have all made at least one decision based on feelings. I am also just as confident that some of those decisions, just like my own, ended badly. And with the passing of time, it was discovered that the feelings used to make the decision were wrong.

A motto that I have lived by for many years and that was birthed out of a rash of wrong decisions is “feelings are not fact.” It has become some of the best advice that I give myself. It really is a great rule of thumb for all of us to live by. However, I have recently wondered what happens when feelings are fact. How should one react when the way you have been feeling is confirmed to be a fact?

While at church a few Sundays ago, our praise and worship team sang “Bless it be the Name of the Lord.” When our praise team got to the lyrics “He gives and takes away” I had to stop singing. All I could think of was that I was declaring that God gives His blessings and He takes them away. I spoke to our praise team leader afterwards and shared my thoughts as well as why I couldn’t sing the rest of the song.

That conversation made me research the origins of the song. I discovered the song writer, Matt Redman, wrote the song soon after 911. Matt Redman stated that “the spiritual and emotional climate of the times was an important factor in the birthing of this song.” The nation was looking and needing to find an answer to the destruction that 911 caused not only to our land but to our hearts and souls. Many turned to God for those answers and found peace in His presence.

To go deeper with God you have to be willing to go from level to level. You have to be willing to transition.

God has deeper depths for each one of us. What that looks like on an individual basis is between you and God but you have to be willing to move. At times the transition is going to be hard: the loss of a job, the loss of a child, the loss of a dream. No one can predict what the next level will look like, only God. Trust God. He loves you more than you know.

I woke up several mornings ago and had a conversation with God about my feelings. I was telling Him about how my husband was making me feel and about how this was unfair and that was unfair and I remembered my resolution for this year: no negative thoughts. I had not gone into a full-blown pity party session but I could have easily arrived at that party if I would have continued down the road of negativity that I was traveling.

Was everything that I was feeling true, yes. Was everything that I was telling God true, yes. But I had to make a choice. Would I continue this negative conversation or would I state the facts and then ask the Lord for help in dealing with them. And in asking for help, I would also speak and think God’s word and turn my negative feelings and thoughts into positive declarations.

Have you ever looked at a sunset and just saw the sun, then you saw a person experiencing their first ever sun set. You watch and see how they take it in as though it was life giving breath. They pause and stare at the sun as the last strands of light slowly set into the horizon and then they draw in a long breath and slowly let it out realizing the beauty that they just witnessed was created by the hand of the greatest artist in the universe, God.

When we just look with our eyes, we could miss the greatness of what God created for us to see. If we walk through life just looking, we will miss the power of God’s work in our life. We have to stop and SEE what is going on around us.